Rebelmouse

Sunday, August 14, 2011

New Family Member - Introducing Benny the Bunny!

We went to the shelter to visit a pair of guinea pigs. Two days later, we came home with a rabbit. Today, I still smile to DH and whisper, "Guess what? There's a bunny in the house!"

Benny the Bunny

Introducing Benny, a brindle short hair rabbit that won us over with his friendliness. I like to tell people that he chose us because adopting a rabbit was never on our mind - another guinea pig, yes, but a rabbit? Yet, after meeting Benny, we couldn't forget him. We visited him again the second day where he further charmed us and that night, I did some heavy thinking about whether we were ready for such a big change and responsibility. Only after the third day when DH said he was open to the idea that I knew he was coming home with us that evening.

I have much to learn. Aside from their diet, rabbits and guinea pigs have rather different needs. I needed to learn Benny's body language, his likes and dislikes, and observe his normal behavior so I know when he's not well. And since he doesn't have a bunny friend, we have to spend extra time with him to ensure he's emotionally content. We also have much to do to bunny-proof the house. That's for another post!

Benny enjoying some petting

So far we know he's very affectionate. He'd come to us in the morning for some head scratches. He is nearly impossible to hold. Even the vet and nurse had trouble holding him down during his examination and had to do it sitting on the floor. I have not tried picking him up yet and don't know how I'll do so after seeing how much trouble the professionals had. You have to do it right or else they'll kick hard and break their back. Yikes!

And what might Bert and Belle think of him? We've introduced them several times. Bert is a little wary of the new guy. Belle doesn't mind and is happy so long as her share of the veggies remains the same. :-)

*****

In other news, we've hit the jackpot with our zucchini plants and I'm now in a bit of conundrum of how to use them all aside from roasting them. I've tried two recipes:

Savory Zucchini Cakesby Happy-Vegan.com
These were a hit with DH. I realized after the first few cakes that you didn't need much oil to cook them. They really were just like pancakes.

Low-Fat Zucchini Breadby Holy Cow!
These turned out dry and dense the bread machine. I'm starting to learn the bread machine isn't the way to go to bake most of the recipes I find but I'm too darn lazy to do it the normal way! ;-)

Other recipes I've tried were:Cornbread Biscuitsfrom Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
These went well with tofu scrambles.

Mango Muffinsby Holy Cow!
This was the first time I baked without using a soymilk/apple cider vinegar mix. It turned out nice and fluffy but no one could tell it was mango. Go figure.

Chickpea "Tuna" Saladby Robin Robertson
I didn't have the sea vegetable flakes and I guess that's what made my version just okay. It made for a nice light lunch though.

4 comments:

Awww, Benny is adorable! I wonder why he fights being held? Must have had a bad experience once. I love Belle's opinion of the new tenant ("happy as long as her share of the veggies remains the same" - LOL!) I'm sure he'll fit right in and be delighted to be a member of your family!

I'm jealous of your zucchini! We planted two zucchini plants this spring and had such high hopes and big plans - they grew HUGE and had TONS of big blossoms, but the zucchini are puny little things that just shrivel on the vine when they get to be about 4 inches long! I didn't think zucchini could EVER fail! Robyn has an organic veggie garden in town, and though she didn't plant zucchini this year she said the exact same thing happened to her cucumbers. Maybe our spring was just too wet and cold, but it's very disappointing! The only other things we planted were poblano peppers (which did well) and butternut squash (which are still a couple months away from harvesting). One of my favorite uses for zucchini are Confetti Muffins. You can see my comment on how I've made them on this post, it's the 6th one down. They're really good!

The deer always loved to eat the zucchini we'd toss to them - wonder if Benny might enjoy some of your overflow? :-)

Benny has totally won us over. At the moment it's like having a toddler at home though because when we let him roam the house, we have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn't chew on something he shouldn't!

He's a very affectionate bunny so we don't think he was mistreated before. But he will fight like a bull if you try to pick him up. So far we just scoot him to where we want him!

Thanks for sharing the zucchini recipe. Will try it out once I get some apple sauce. I love that it has diced apples in it!

For your zucchini plants, have you tried pollinating them yourself? It's what DH had to do in order to get the zucchini to grow. With all the bees dying off worldwide, I think we have to step in and do a bit of work ourselves. ;-) It really works! The one that DH pollinated grew and the ones that didn't shriveled up after growing 2-3 inches and died like yours. So what he did was take a Qtip or tissue, rub some pollen off the male flower (morning is best when it's in full bloom) and then brush it on the female flower of another plant. Same plant might work but since you have two plants, maybe try pollinating from the different plants instead.

Our plants are reaching the end of their lives. I got some butternut squash seeds that I hope to plant this weekend. We hope they do as well as the zucchinis! It made us feel like real gardeners to see so many fruits. :-)

It never occurred to me to give Benny some zuchs since the guinea pigs didn't like them. I shall try and see what he thinks! :-)

This is a cute site that you will come to learn is pretty dead on with bunny "body" language. But your own Benny Bun will speak to you in ways that you never dreamed! Also, I hear you have a friend that is quite well versed in all things BUN! A skype call for picking up/holding lessons would be completely doable!!

Best of luck with your wee bun...mine is determined to reach 11 years old & I wish you a long, healthy & happy time with Benny. You guys were lucky to find each other.

Hey, VW!I fell out of the blogworld for a while, since we sold our house and moved in September/October! We're renting a cottage in town now, and will probably buy it (it needs some work - here we go again! but much of it is done and it's got a great location!)

I've never pollinated anything myself, but had to tell you that after all those weeks of fizzled fruit, the zucchini plants went wild! We got a lot of good zucchinis during the last 2-3 weeks we lived there, along with several poblanos and two butternut squash. Of course we were too busy to really get to enjoy the zucchini much (no time to bake confetti muffins!), but gave a few away to our new neighbors, one of whom gave us organic tomatoes in trade. :-)

I glanced at some of your more recent posts and see that Benny is settling in but that the piggies aren't being quite as welcoming as they could be! Hopefully they'll work things out. My friend Barbara in England just lost her bunny, also a rescue named Ben, who had lived to a very ripe old age. He got along very well with Barbara's four CATS, so tell Belle and Bert they need to lighten up! ;-)

Who Are the VeganWheekers?

Bert (left) and Belle (sleepy right) are our two guinea pigs adopted from the local shelter. They make a "wheek" sound when they want food, hence the name Wheekers. This blog chronicles my life as a vegan and guinea pig & bunny servant. Thanks for coming by!